Lion's Dance

The ship's captain rose to the deck alongside a veteran soldier. Their steps slowed to the sight of a woman bathed in ivory light with armor as dark as ebony. It left the entire crew silent as she descended from the rain filled sky onto the deck of a vessel that coasted through a sea of air currents. No one spoke or dared to speak.
That is until, "Is she with you," the dark haired tiefling captain asks the soldier as he tilts his body over.
"I thought she was with you," the old man responds without leaving his eyes from the creature.
"Thats because she is," Captain Leone says. It is an obvious lie, but said with enough confidence that even lies sound like a form of truth. He steps forward in a bold swagger that parts the crowd. One quick pop of his jacket collar later he announces loudly, "Its about time you showed up!"
What Dante Leone didn't realize is the woman was standing there, looking into the distance, for a particular reason. Behind those deep eyes that time has forgotten rages the memories of the past. Of a century ago and another war. Another time. The zeal and sacrifice met. The rain on her skin bringing back a time when ashes fell, mixed with the blood of her enemies. No. This secret past is her secret, her shield, and her holy mission...
"Hello?" Dante says, now standing within arm's length. He snaps his fingers quickly, snap snap. "You in there?"
"Silence!" the angelic creature replies, a sword of shadow and malice pointed at his throat. The blade shakes with excitement and it is uncertain if she is staying it from slaying him or edging it on.
Dante, a man of excellent situational awareness, states, "Fuck," with a sharp exhale.
Cold eyes sweep across the deck to a crew uncertain if they should engage when the only person capable of flying the airship is at swordpoint. The battle for Arhor'ha may be over before it ever began.
"I am Valkyrie Sibylla," she declares, "and I demand to know for who you fight for." The voice leaves little room for debate.
Captain Leone raises a single gloved hand, "I got this," he informs the other 'heroic' people who are 'extremely concerned' for his safety. The hand comes down on the edge of the blade, pushing with an index finger downward gently. "Valkyrie, my name is Dante Leone, and I fight for myself. I'm what you may call an independent. Currently accepting offers for new crew," he winks a glowing red eye to her, "and these fine folks are going to that yonder floating city to..." he looks over to the venerated soldier "... liberate it. From monsters."
He pauses, noticing Sibylla's skeptical gaze. "Mean monsters," Dante embellishes. "Total nightmares."
Sibylla draws her blade further down. Her gaze casts out to the grey sky. Emotions focus back on the rain. The past. The pain. Dante wisely takes this time to step back two feet. "Okay," he intones, "so you are welcome to..." and before he can say anything she flaps those wings, sending a spray of water around the deck as she lifts off into the air. "... and shes gone."
Gargax, the elder soldier, steps up to Dante. Dante grins, "She'll be back. They always come back."
The soldier tells him, "You had no idea who that was, did you."
Dante admits, "No clue."
The greyhaired man is dumbfounded, "How have you survived this long?"
"My charming good looks and a thirst for adventure!" Dante exclaims, wild grin, fist clenched.
Gargax extends his hands as if trying to grasp the situation that is Dante's mind, "How? Just..."
The thought is interrupted with the returned of the winged Valkyrie. On her sword is a humanoid wasp creature. It writhes, impaled. "Is this the monster you speak of, demon?" she declares, tone as serious as death itself.
Dante elbows Gargax in the side as if to say 'See, they always come back' with his body. "Why, yes," the captain says, "well done." The tiefling stops himself. In a moment of pride he corrects, "And I'm not a demon."
"You will all die," Sibylla states swiftly.
"That escalated quickly," Dante replies, not surprised by that response.
"There are hundreds of these in the skies ahead," she states, pointing her sword to the island and the haze of enemies in front it. Funny. They look more like waves of smoke from a distance.
A tongue clicks against the captain's cheek. Looking over to Gargax, Dante states, "Whelp, want me to take you back?"
"No," Gargax states, steadfast in his mission. His group of to-be heroes all nod with him in turn. They all have their reasons for being here. All of them involve getting to that island and finishing what they started.
"Suicide isn't a great social option," Dante reminds, "you'll be dead before you hit the ground. And I've grown to like you like the father I never had, wanted, or needed."
Gargax takes a deep breath and exhales, "Some of us will die, yes. All of us, no. Those of us that survive will fight with the strength of the fallen." Strong words from an old soldier. Dante isn't as convinced, "I've heard this before."
"Have you," Gargax snaps, "heard it, that is. This is bigger than you and me. This is war. People die. More people will die..."
Dante swiftly holds up a hand, "Your swift words and selfless actions have convinced me! I see it your way now and shall repent my mischievous ways. Come, Sir Gargax, for our martyrdom awaits!"
Gargax glares at Dante, who is standing there dramatically clenching his fist. "More people will die if we lose this war. The people that don't die will wish they were. That includes you." The eyes of those that believe in Gargax's vision speak without words.
The old man sees that no amount of words will sway Dante to join arms in this war. The devil only has his own interests at heart. Nothing worth dying for. Worth living for. An empty existence fulfilled on adrenaline and 'adventure'. His old eyes soften not in defeat, but in pity.
"I'll get you there," Dante says, pointing at the soldier, "I can fly this thing through the eye of a needle, do a barrel roll, and not lose a drop of my damn rum. But once you are off my ship," he begins.
"It won't be any of your concern," Gargax says in a tired voice, "will it."
Dante takes s large captain's hat, putting it on his smokey black hair, "You get me my clean shot, and I'll save the day. Just stay clear of the blast radius." All but one wavers in the belief that he will follow through on that promise.
The Valkyrie, assumed to have fallen into internal monologue this entire time, was acutely aware of the dramatic quarrel. "To war," she commits herself, raising her dark blade to the sky.
"To war," Dante says half-hearted, which no one believes. In a manly sulk, he goes to the helm and prepares the ship for a charge at the floating island. The rising wave of armed wasps greets them with a hail of arrow fire. Scatter shots from the ship's cannons crackle fire against the rain and echo thunder against the storm. Armored warriors board the ship, pushed back by the heroes and valkyrie.
"This is your stop," Dante says, diving the ship in descent towards the island. The ship passes over the land without stopping as the group leaps from the ship. They begin to fall to their death before magic slows the descent. True to the prediction, the swarm of wasps now hone in on the would be heroes as easy targets. The Valkyrie breaks from the deck to engage in the aerial battle.
The ship itself becomes a chaos of melee above deck. The prowess of seasoned Targarius forces keep the swarm at bay long enough for Dante to make his second stop. "Quickly!" barks one soldier, "I saw the champion enter." Thunder cracks through the sky, breaking off a chunk of the ship and taking a cannon with it.
"Leave some crew," Dante exclaims as he is all but abandoned on his ship. A soldier turns, spitting at the deck which is washed by the rain. "We all die. And you'll be no different." The rogue flips off the soldier as he heads off. "Righteous assholes," he yells back, drawing his ship away from the island.
It leaves an airship, sailing in the air borne skies, crawling with wasp creatures. "Dante Leone, man of action and adventure, stands alone on his trusty ship," he begins to self narrate, "and behold thee a dozen foes. Each as fierce as the rest. With clicky clacky mandables and pointy bits on their booty. It doesn't look good for our brave air pirate. But wait! In the distance! Hope!" He points out, emphatically, to the distance as the creature nearby him looks.
A crossbow bolt goes through the insect's head. Dante drops his hand crossbow, flourishing a rapier and finishing the job from his ruse. "But this isn't the end for DANTE LEONE! Hold on tight, you ugly bugs." The ship itself turns hard to the side, causing the wasps to slide off and fall. "Hahahaha!" the man laughs triumphantly.
The wasps, with wings that allow them to fly, hover back to the ship. "Right, you fly," Dante responds. In a shock of divine light, the valkyrie returns. "She flies too. Damn I need a magic pair of boots or something."
Another creature appears against the clouds. A creature with avian wings that casts a shadow against the clouds. The water seems to still and the air charge before another crash of lightning hits the ship. "Hold on there," Dante exclaims.
The valkyrie, who avoided the attack, responds, "I am fine. I have found my prey. My final labor. My..."
"IM TALKING ABOUT MY SHIP," Dante yells, petting the steering wheel, "Shh, shh, you are doing good. Little more and we'll patch you right up." Retreat sounds like an excellent option. The ship, battered and smoldering, turns to make its way back. A gaze is set to the two large buildings where the action is happening. Both look dire. He considers that 'save the day' shot the heroes were setting up for him. Ah, they will figure it out. They looked resourceful.
Meanwhile, Valkyrie Sibylla flies off to engage with a creature she is evenly matched with. Lightning is hurled at her, etching the dark armor she wears and searing her wings. The problem becomes getting close enough to engage. He simply is too fast. The wind carries this avian monster as fast as lightning.
"You are not my destiny," it squawks, "He fled. Like a coward. After all my well laid traps." A blade of darkness comes at him, only to hit water vapor. Appearing behind the valkyrie, a roar of thunder jostles her wings and she begins to fall. "Crushing you will have to do. I am not wasteful."
"I'd love to see you try," she replies, letting herself fall as her armor falls off in plates of lightless glass. She releases her sword, that flies on its own. "Betrayer, slay him. Maiden, bind him." And in a brilliant display, she erupts in holy light. Not quite an angel, but the celestial blood that courses through her is enough to betwitch Dante from the distance.
"No," the avian says, plates attaching to him like tar. The blade cold, draining out his intense font of power. It gets a taste for it and cuts more. Soon he is a prisoner to the armor, bled by the blade, and blasted by the near-angel of war. Left ragged, Sibylla flies up to him. "Yes, for I am the Omega."
A stab causes the creature to stop breathing. A draw back and Sibylla finds that she can't take her dagger out. A voice crackles in the clouds. The figure she stabbed degrades into energy. An illusion. A trap. "And I am the Alpha. Lets start at the beginning before your end."
Its over in a moment. Eyes cast upwards the heaven, her ascension so close at hand, so much she could touch it. Divinity. Divinity comes down in the form of a pillar of lightning and sunders her. The armor quickly tries to return to her body, plate by plate, as she falls.
When a maiden is falling from the sky, you can count on Dante to come to the rescue. His ship flies away from the island and towards the descending figure. The two of them can get out of here together. Start adventures as unlikely allies, a tiefling and an aasimar. She can tell him about how she got that armor. He can tell her about the time he shot an incubus with a cannon.
Not fast enough. "Hold on!" the captain yells, grabbing a rope and flinging himself off of the side of the ship. He has always wanted to do this. The man swings from the rope, hand outstretched to grab her. He grips that hand just in time, feeling the cool ebony gauntlet and gripping firmly against the rain. He watches as the rest of Sibylla continues to fall and he is left holding one gauntlet.
He is left there on the rope, dangling there. Something changed and he can't figure out what. There isn't a joke for this. There isn't an excuse. He can think of them, like 'See you next Fall, I guess!' and 'Well I've only known her for an hour, tops.' But they come with a sense of emptiness. It is as if he has been talking through a Mask and for the first time he realizes the truth. He failed. They all failed.
Eyes cast back to the battlefield. All of these people are dead. He was just talking with them before. Maybe he is the only one who survived this. What kind of legendary tale is that? Dante Leone, sole survivor of the Assault on Skyport. A flash of light and heat is seen in the distance. A hole is opened in building where Gargax is. "Its not over," he tells himself, putting the gauntlet on, climbing back up.
"One shot can change everything," he says to himself, hand over hand as he climbs the rope. Clambering to the deck, he nearly trips on his way to the wheel. "And..." he realizes that the cannons are all gone. The lightning destroyed them, "... I'm done running." Normally those words hold a false sense of bravado. Today the mask is gone and the words hold a raw, fierce quality to them.
The airship steers towards the opening provided by an explosive. A blockade of wasps fire arrows during the charge, tearing his jacket to shreds. He continues on, the ship barely able to continue on course. It would have never made it to the ground and a part of him knew that. There really only was only one way. Forward and through. Never looking back. His forte.
The ship crashes through the building, surprising the group of heroes who catch a chaotic glimpse of the wooden shrapnel and force tearing through the primary antagonist and Dante both. Bones break and snap as the man is flung forward, still in motion, off of the island. Surrounded by the debris of his ship, rain, and one gauntlet he coughs, then emits a sad laughter. "Heh. Hey," he says as the wind whips around him, "gauntlet. You want to be a gauntlet of flying or something?"
"No," says a faint voice of a girl in his head.
"Teleportation," Dante continues, hope flaring up in his voice.
"No," she continues, voice becoming more familiar.
"Well. It looks like I'll finally make an impact on the world," Dante says as he looks towards the ground that gets ever larger, "can you help with that?"
"Yes," she replies, softly.
"Great, lay it on me," Dante coughs, still in significant pain from being through a massive collision.
"You don't have to be afraid. Its very fast. Like falling asleep. And... that your family is very, very proud of you," she says, distant.
He recognizes the voice now. Like a dream he forgot and suddenly remembered once more. "Sis?"
"Dad's here too. I wish I could explain everything to you. To... apologize for your curse. Our curse. All things have a price, but Eugene," she says as a name he hasn't heard in forever is said to him, "you are not alone. We are right here, okay?"
Turning around, Eugene faces Arhor'ha. The forest never looked so green. Even the rain starts to feel familiar to him. "All this time I was looking for something. It was here the whole time. How cliche." There is a smile and a pause, "I'm coming home, sis."